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MODERN MINING
January 2016
MINING News
Asanko Gold Inc, listed on the TSX and
NYSE, reports that commissioning of
Phase 1 of the Asanko Gold Mine (AGM) in
Ghana has begun with first gold expected
this month (January 2016). Phase 1 is a low
cost, long life mine that will produce an
average of 190 000 ounces of gold annu-
ally at steady state over 12 years.
The crusher was commissioned on
Mills installed at the Asanko Gold Mine (photo: Asanko Gold).
Asanko Gold Mine in Ghana starts commissioning
waste on December 10, 2015 and ore is
now being fed from the run of mine (ROM)
ore stockpile in preparation for the com-
mencement of milling operations. Water
commissioning of the pre-leach thick-
ener and carbon-in-leach (CIL) circuits has
begun. The installation of the mill motors
and lining of the ball and SAG mills has
been completed and their commission-
ing with ore was expected in the last week
of December 2015, one month ahead of
schedule.
Mining operations are performing
according to plan and there are now
approximately 290 000 tonnes (+30 days
steady state production) of ore on the stock-
pile. The majority of this was mined from
resources that were classified as inferred
mineral resources encountered during the
pre-strip and as such were not part of the
Definitive Project Plan (DPP) announced on
November 13, 2014. Over 90 000 tonnes of
this ore has been stockpiled separately with
an average grade of 2,16 g/t gold.
The main Nkran mineral reserves are
now being opened up as the pre-strip
nears completion and approximately
1,2 Mt of ore have been further delineated
by RC grade control drilling. The grade con-
trol model is comparing well to the mineral
resource estimate. Grade reconciliation will
start following the commencement of ore
processing in Q1 2016.
Peter Breese, President and CEO, com-
mented: “We continue to track within our
capital budget of US$295 million and have
strengthened the balance sheet heading
into commissioning against a backdrop of
uncertainty for the gold price. We remain
confident of our ability to reach commer-
cial production and generate positive cash
flows by Q2 2016.”
Randgold Resources passes on Obuasi opportunity
On 16 September 2015, Randgold Resources
and AngloGold Ashanti announced their
intention to form a joint venture to rede-
velop AngloGold Ashanti’s Obuasi mine in
Ghana, subject among other things to the
completion of satisfactory due diligence by
Randgold and the agreement of a revised
development plan.
After undertaking the due diligence
exercise into the mine and the redevelop-
ment opportunity the mine affords, and
following the work undertaken on the
revised development plan, Randgold says
it has determined that the development
plan will not satisfy its internal investment
requirements.
Accordingly, it has decided to terminate
the investment agreement entered into
with AngloGold Ashanti, with immediate
effect.
Next Graphite, Inc, a graphite exploration
and development stage company operat-
ing in Namibia, has announced testing and
grading results of a 1 000-kg underground
sample from its Aukam property lower
adit. Next Graphite’s recent rounds of test-
ing and grading have been funded by
the company’s joint venture with Caribou
Carbon Corp (CKR), listed on the TSX-V.
“The 96 % grading from our lower
adit aligns with sample grading from
the140 000 tonnes of heaps on our prop-
erty and is representative of what we can
immediately mine in our lower adit,” states
Cliff Bream, CEO of Next Graphite. “The
expertise provided to us from our joint-
venture with CKR has helped us extract
and validate the calibre of natural flake
graphite we anticipated.”
The test samples were taken as part of a
25-ton bulk sampling programme from the
lower adit at the Aukam project. Samples
were delivered and tested by Lilhof
Enterprises, formerly Gecko Laboratories,
of Swakopmund, Namibia.
The Aukam property, which was mined
on a small scale for graphite from the 1940s
through to the 1970s, is located 50 km
south-west of Goageb in southern Namibia.
During its years of operation, the Aukam
mine produced 25 000 t of graphite.
Next Graphite receives Aukam sample results